Vaughn

Part of me wished I could turn back the clock and take back my declaration. Not because I didn’t mean what I’d said, but because Carissa wasn’t at the same point I was. Even though I’d only just resolved to make her mine, I’d already come to terms with my decision. I just hadn’t meant to act on it quite so soon.

I’d planned to take my time with her. To give her a chance to get used to me. To come to want me even half as much as I wanted her. But my gut was telling me time wasn’t on my side. That I needed to act sooner rather than later. To tie Carissa to me as quickly as possible, using any means necessary.

With that thought in mind, I headed to my rental house before dropping her back at her parents. She’d been quiet ever since my warning. I needed to reinforce our connection before letting her go again.

“Where are we?” she asked when I pulled into the drive.

I didn’t answer right away, not until I’d gotten her through the front door. “Welcome to my home.”

Her head swiveled from right to left as she took in the living room, dining area and kitchen. The house had an open floor plan, with one wall with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake just past the back yard. The furnishings were comfortable, mostly beige with light green accents.

“It’s hard to picture you living here.”

“It’s a furnished rental, and I only moved in a couple weeks ago. It’s very different from my home in Atlanta.”

Her startled gaze flew to my face. “You don’t live here permanently? It’s only a temporary thing because of the business that brought you to the gala?”

“I hadn’t planned on staying here forever, but my work is such that I could live just about anywhere I wanted.” I stalked towards her, and pulled her body against mine as soon as I got close enough. “As long as you’re here, I don’t see myself wanting to leave.”

She wrapped her arms around me, locked her hands at the base of my back, but leaned back so she could look up at me. “You had me scared there for a minute. I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I was worried that maybe you hadn’t meant all that ‘mine’ stuff you spouted off in the car.”

Staring down at her, I couldn’t resist anymore. “Let me show you how much I meant it.” Running my hand down her hips and around, I tugged her closer. Every part of my body was telling me to take what I wanted, damn the consequences. But I couldn’t bring myself to take her this quickly, not until I was absolutely certain it was exactly what she wanted. Until then, I was only going to allow myself a little taste of what was to come—while focusing wholly on her pleasure and showing her that her needs came first for me.

Sliding my tongue across her lips, I loved how she gasped, giving me full access to her mouth. Plunging inside, I deepened the kiss. At the same time, I moved her backwards until she was pressed against the wall of windows.

“Let me make you feel good,” I whispered into her ear, enjoying the feel of her body shivering at my words. I leaned forward, my nose brushing along her jawline. “Tell me I can show you what it will be like when you’re mine.”

“Vaughn,” she gasped as I fell to my knees in front of her.

“Say yes,” I urged, gliding my hands up her legs and under her skirt.

“Yes,” she moaned when my fingers reached the edge of her panties.

I slid the silky material to the side and breathed in the musky scent of her desire. I wanted to pound my chest in triumph at the glistening proof of her need. The feel of her fingers in my hair and the sound of her whispering “please” had me burying my face between her legs.

“Vaughn,” she cried out, her legs trembling.

I gripped her thighs in my hands, my fingers digging into her smooth skin as I spread her wider for my mouth. The first long lick of her pussy had me addicted to her sweet taste. I nibbled and sucked, determined to drive her crazy with need. To get her hooked on the feel of my mouth working her into a frenzy.

“I can’t—oh!”

Deciding I’d teased her enough, I sucked her clit into my mouth, making her moan as her hips jerked with her orgasm. Licking at her softly, I waited for her shaking to stop as she came down from her high.

Her shy eyes met mine when I looked up at her, and she looked even more beautiful with her cheeks flushed and her eyelids at half-mast. I grinned at her before kissing each of her thighs and then placing one final, soft kiss between her legs.

“I can’t believe I let you do that,” Carissa whispered, burying her face in my shoulder when I rose to my feet.

“I can’t believe I’m going to take you home when all I want is to feast on you over and over again.”

If only I’d gone with what I wanted to do instead of what I thought was the right thing to do for Carissa, I would have saved both of us a lot of torment. Had I known three days would pass without a single word from Carissa, I never would have taken her back to her parents’ home at all. My texts and calls went unanswered. If it weren’t for the fact that Whit and his team had eyes on her house, I would have been out of my mind with worry over her.

Even with them there to watch over her, I was getting close to the end of my patience. She’d been shy about me going down on her when she’d left me, but I didn’t believe she would deliberately ignore me because of it.

I’d tried to use the time away from her wisely, digging further into Bellamy’s life in an attempt to confirm that the trafficking ring would end with him if I killed him. There wasn’t anything indicating otherwise in the financial records Gaige had managed to get his hands on, but there were a few payments to accounts owned by Carissa’s father which concerned me. Not because I thought he was tangled up in the trafficking ring, the timing of the payments didn’t line up with any of the ring’s activity. But the amounts were enough for me to take action.

Just that morning, I’d instructed Whit to find a way to bug the house since he’d been unsuccessful in picking up any useful intel using long-range directional microphones. I knew sending someone inside was a risk, but he’d assured me that Sera, the lone woman on his team, would be able to get in and out without anyone being the wiser. It wasn’t until I received a text from him two hours later confirming the bugs were in place that I finally relaxed, as much as I could until I spoke with Carissa myself.

When my phone rang four hours later, my hope that the wait was over was quickly dashed when I recognized Whit’s number. My entire body froze when he skipped the greeting and went straight into the matter at hand.

“I haven’t caught your girl’s voice yet, but I did pick up a call between her father and Bellamy.”

“How long ago?”

“They just hung up.”

I was up and out of my seat, heading to the stash of weapons I kept in the basement, since I knew damn well that he had to have heard something bad if he didn’t wait to give me an update.

“Bellamy called to confirm dinner plans for tomorrow night. It didn’t sound like a business dinner to me, not with your girl’s name coming up in conversation. Bellamy was very specific about the fact that she’d better be there. He said he didn’t want anything to interfere like it did last week and that he was nearing the end of his patience.”

It was all starting to add up in my head, and I didn’t like the picture which was building.

“Hold on a second,” Whit said, just before I heard muffled voices over the line like he’d placed his hand over the phone. “It’s a good thing you had us bug the house today because it looks like your girl is going to need to be extracted, and soon.”

“What happened?” I asked as I slipped on shoulder, thigh and ankle harnesses.

“Sera was monitoring the feed while I called you. The mother kept quiet during the call, but she had quite a bit to say once they hung up. She wanted to know how much longer Bellamy would wait and what they would tell people if Carissa didn’t go along with the plan and he just took her.”

“That fucking bitch,” I hissed.

“It gets worse,” Whit warned. “Her father already has a cover story prepped. Something about sending her back to Switzerland because she missed her friends after spending so many years there.”

“The only reason you prep a cover story is because you think you’re going to need it,” I bit out.

“I don’t see good things in your girl’s future if she stays in that house.”

“She’s not staying in there,” I growled. “We’re going in to get her tonight.”